A significant expense in the production of optical devices is test during manufacture. The devices are fabricated on a single wafer and usually need to be diced into many separate chips that are then tested individually. When manipulating the chips individually there is the possibility of damaging the chip. Some packaging may also be needed, such as wire bonding or fiber attach, before testing can occur. Testing discrete chips that need processing before evaluating for failure is a costly process. A preferred method is to test each system on wafer before dicing the wafer into individual chips.
There is a need for improved systems and methods for qualifying photonic chips.